Affinity Konar
Read everyone you love obsessively--detect their patterns, and find your own.
Read who you don't love, if only to understand what you want to avoid, to push against it, and discover your own stance on the page.
Protect your health as you can--I find the tortured artist myth dangerous. (Please see the film "Frank" for one of my favorite takes on this.) While it's true that hardship may move us towards art, I've only been productive during times that my mental health and chronic pain issues have been adequately addressed.
Meditation is a very cool deal.
Walking a dog is a form of meditation, and animals in general will always be a good idea.
Most importantly, honor what you love and obsess over within the test.Never write about something simply because you think it's what someone might want to read. You can't fake true affection for characters, and that affection is necessary to animate fiction.
Read who you don't love, if only to understand what you want to avoid, to push against it, and discover your own stance on the page.
Protect your health as you can--I find the tortured artist myth dangerous. (Please see the film "Frank" for one of my favorite takes on this.) While it's true that hardship may move us towards art, I've only been productive during times that my mental health and chronic pain issues have been adequately addressed.
Meditation is a very cool deal.
Walking a dog is a form of meditation, and animals in general will always be a good idea.
Most importantly, honor what you love and obsess over within the test.Never write about something simply because you think it's what someone might want to read. You can't fake true affection for characters, and that affection is necessary to animate fiction.
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